Peebo.net

Since the last post we’ve climbed a mountain (albeit a small one) with the assistance of two old Chinese ladies who climbed alongside, pointing the way and the shortcuts, in the hope that we buy some postcards and drinks from them. (We did. We felt terrible that they
had to climb a mountain in order to sell us water, but that’s the way things are done here.) As we descended, we passed other groups of climbers, all with an accompanying Chinese grandma.

After the climb (literally–we went straight to the airport) we flew to Xian in the north west (more or less) part of the country. Yangshou, where we were until yesterday, was a (relatively) small farming village. In coming to Xian we’re back in the city. Xian was the capital city of the Chinese empire for centuries–it was the home to emperor Qin (the first emperor of China), the starting point for the Silk Road and the birthplace of Taoism. Now it’s a kinetic city of 3.25 million, known to Western tourists primarily for its proximity
to the Terracotta Warriors (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army).

A couple of people we met were underwhelmed by their Terracotta Warrior visit. The main complaints were that it was too crowded and you couldn’t get close enough to the artifacts. Number crunchers complained that although there are over 8,000 figures, you can “only” see around 2,500 in the exhibit area. We respectfully disagree. The sight of the excavated army was amazing–both for the craftsmanship of the pieces and the sheer scale…

There’s much more to say (as usual… we haven’t mentioned Mr. Gou our tour guide or the Muslim Quarter of Xian… ) but it’s getting late and we have to be up early tomorrow. We were going to post some photos, but we’re still having some trouble getting them up… (is the viewing of flikr photos blocked in China?) so you may have to wait until we get home.

- peebo

It’s been an eventful couple of days. Since crossing into mainland China we’ve decided that Hong Kong is like China with training wheels. Sure, it’s different and exotic, but many people speak English and being in Hong Kong is a lot like being in any other, large, Western metropolitan city. After crossing to the mainland we’ve found ourselves in the real China. English speakers are rare, signs and instructions are only in Chinese and getting around is a bit more of a struggle. However, so far any obstacles we’ve had to overcome have been well worth the effort.

It’s only been two days since our last post but trying to summarize everything here would not begin to do it justice. (For us it feels more like a week… or maybe time/days is not the best way to put it… Hong Kong seems almost like another trip.)

Katy and I are sitting in front of a computer at the Yagshou Culture House Hostel and looking at each other wondering what we should say. Should we talk about trying to find our bus after crossing the border into mainland China.

The 11 hour night bus ride from the border to Yangshou in a bus that has bunk beds instead of seats. Yesterday’s bike ride through the rice fields and villages full of friendly people (like the old lady on a bicycle who shouted ‘hello!’ as we passed). Today’s river cruise on a bamboo raft down the Li River, through some of the most striking karst mountain landscape we’ve seen. Or maybe I should spend the whole post telling you about cooking dinner for 20 people with the family that runs the hostel where we’re staying (they actually did the cooking but welcomed me into the kitchen to watch and ask all sorts of stupid questions).

Looking back at the last paragraph, we’re really not trying to tease. We could go on for pages on each of those topics, but we have to get up early tomorrow to see yet another beautiful spot (Moon Hill) before we travel to our next destination, Xian. (Not to mention the fact that our internet connection is a bit spotty.)

So, you’ll have to wait for more details (and photos).

- peebo

Hong Kong (7 million people) has been great. It all started with the free upgrade to the “executive suite” room with a fabulous view of the HK skyline across the harbor (we have photos) and just got better from there.

HK is a vertical city. The buildings climbs up from the harbor along steep hills and many of the buildings themselves are thin vertical skyscrapers–30-50-70 stories. These buildings combined with the steep hills make the city seem like it is reaching up, up, up. However, once amongst the hi-rises you find the shorter, older buildings which house many of the cities restaurants, bars and shops. These smaller, well-worn places are often side-by-side with an ultra-modern, high-end shopping malls. (And there are *lots* of these malls… you can’t walk anywhere without being routed to or through one. However, their super-air-conditioned interiors do offer a nice respite from the heat outside.)

Highlights include:
- Dim Sum brunch at Maxim’s Palace (an hour-and-a-half wait and worth it)

- Escalator ride from Central to the residential area known as the Mid-Levels (longest escalator in the world - 800 meters)

- Enjoying the hazy view from Victoria peak, including a part of a 2 mile walk among the lush and tropical park on top of the island. (The pollution here is terrible. For the last two days the sky is a sort of white, gauzy curtain. From Victoria Peak you could barely see the harbour below and you could not see the buildings across the harbor at all. According to the paper, this is not “normal” but becoming more common. When the wind is low, like this week, the smog can’t escape.)

- Drinks at a quiet bar in Soho (we think of it as the East Village of HK)

- View from the bathroom at Felix’s (the bathroom was the best part of this over-rated Philippe Starke designed restaurant).

- The “symphony of lights” light show–every night at 8pm the entire HK skyline is transformed into a “multimedia extravaganza” set to music that you tune into on the radio (given our upgraded room we had a primo view from the living room of our suite.)

We have a few more hours in the city, then we’re off to the mainland!

-peebo

ps - The computer at our hotel doesn’t allow file uploads, but if we can find a way we’ll post some pics later. (Or definitely when we get home.)

It’s 8:15am on Saturday morning, Hong Kong time, and we’ve just arrived at our hotel after a 13 hour flight. We slept quite a bit on the plane, so our bodies are still confused but fairly(?) well rested.

Everything on this end is going well. No snags so far. We took a double-decker bus from the airport to downtown Hong Kong where we’re staying. There was hardly anyone on the bus, since it was so early, so we got the whole upstairs, front window to ourselves–amazing views on the ride into town (skyscrapers, rolling green hills, a harbor full of container ships, and a sunrise above it all).

After a couple of stops a Chinese couple from San Diego got on and asked *us* for directions (which we were able to provide, thank you very much). They were coming into Hong Kong on a six hour layover on their way to the mainland for a dim sum brunch.

Speaking of, that’s where we’re heading now.

If internet access allows, we’ll write again.

- peebo

ps - Oh, yeah… Katy and I are in China for the next two weeks!

I wonder if anyone working on the ARPANET defense project, started in the 1960s, could have ever imagined what they were bringing into existence? That their “Galactic Network” idea would not only come to fruition but become one of the most transformative technologies in human history?

We in the west are already starting to think of this thing we call the Internet as a given–something like electricity or running water. A fact of life. This Washington Post article (Internet Extends Reach Of Bangladeshi Villagers) reminds me (again) of just how amazing, far-reaching and important a global communications network really is. (See also “A hole in the wall” <– watch the video at that link.)

My niece (due on or around January 21st!) will never know what it’s like NOT to have a broadband connection. She will never NOT have an email address. She will never NOT have access to video conferencing with her uncle 2,000 miles away.

When I step back and think about it anew I’m still in awe…

Notes from Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

October 3, 2006 - 4:20pm

I’m sitting in a seventeenth century pub waiting for a pint of Samuel Smith Bitters to settle. This pub was “Est. 1667″ and frequented by “Dr. Johnson and Dickens among others”—so says the sign outside.

Ahhh. . . settled. . .

* * *

I just moved out of the narrow hallway room where an American tourist in his late sixties was talking to a young female friend. (She lives in London. I’d think it was his daughter but she addresses him, in an American accent, by his first name.) From the sound of it he does very well with his “lady friends” (their term). I’m now in the front room—probably the oldest part of the bar. It is dark with wood-paneled walls. Small. No more than fifteen by fifteen feet. Along the wall that faces the alley from which you enter there are two smallish windows paned with think leaded glass and covered with iron bars. The glass is framed in black painted wood and everything is dusty; not much light comes through and outside you can see only the brick wall opposite. A bench runs along that wall and makes an L-shape in the corner (I’m in the L); the L that juts away from the wall ends next to a huge unlit fireplace. Two tables sit in front of the bench. The only other piece of furniture in the room is a single stool at the bar occupied by an older English gent—at least seventy, well-worn dark suit, nice watch, white socks, dapper. There is also a young barman, an old woman—standing, wearing a long coat, holding a purse, staring at the bar with a half finished pint grasped in her right hand—and now a young English woman inquiring about letting a room.

“All these rooms are out for hire, then?” she says.

(Sorry, the old woman is reading a paper, not staring at the bar.)

“Go on the website^[1]. It has all the prices there,” says the barman.

Something about a seventeenth century bar with a web site strikes me as funny.

* *

Older bloke is talking now with an outrageous accent! I can barely understand him. The barman says in response to his inquiry, which I couldn’t quite make out, “I don’t know about that. I don’t get involved.”

The old bloke is now cussing good-naturedly—harassing the barman.

The barman just said, “Know what I mean, dude?” to another young barman that is working in another room. The old bloke is now cussing and making fun of the word “dude.”

* * *

Another pint (£1.72).

Now the woman really is just staring at the counter. The barman asks if she is alright. He offers her water. No response.

* * *

The woman seems to have recovered. She ordered another pint. I’m now thinking it could be a man in a dress.

* * *

Old bloke just left. The Barman offered to get him a cab but he refused and waved goodbye.

I can hear some girls in the next room now. They are talking loudly and laughing. The barman seems interested. There is an old wooden clock on the wall that is stopped at 11:51.

* * *

I just spoke briefly to the barman. He calls this time of day the graveyard shift. He says things pick up considerably after 5:30 when people get off work. He says it’s packed around the holidays. He says the best time of year is in the fall and winter when they make a fire in the big fireplace. He describes it as cozy.

* * *

The old woman just sat down at a table opposite mine.

It IS a man in a dress!!

* * *

Footnotes

[1]When I checked, the web site appears to be down. But here is a Wikipedia entry on the bar and another site with some photos.

I know it’s only been one full day, but I’ve decided I really like London. It’s a fantastic city and in a weird way makes me miss New York. I guess this is because it’s so busy and cosmopolitan. The streets are packed with all sorts of people and as I walk I hear snippets of conversation in a wide variety of languages and accents. Compared to London, San Francisco is a sleepy, homogeneous town.

I had a bit of a mental crisis yesterday morning. After breakfast Katy went off to work and I sat down with my map and guide book to plan my day. I still had it in my head that I would somehow “do London” this week—see everything there is to see, do everything there is to do. After a half hour of list-making and map-checking the enormity of the place began to dawn on me. One could not hope to “do London” in one visit or a dozen visits. There will always be another neighborhood to walk in or sight to see. Just visiting the Museums would take a month (my partial map of central London lists twenty-six). Plus, it is really the people that make a city, and since the people are constantly changing the city changes with them. The London I visit in two years from now will be different than the London I see today.

I finally stopped adding items to my list, packed my map and just starting walking with a vague plan in mind. Highlights from yesterday include:

• St. Giles-in-the-Field Church – chapel originally built in the 12th century; very quiet—I was the only one inside; it contains a pulpit used by John Wesley, founder of Methodism.
• Trafalgar Square – Grand, but with an empty fountain that gave an “under construction” vibe; the Admiral Nelson column (43 meters tall), massive bronze lions with tourists posing for photos, and the National Gallery dominate the scene.
• Somerset House – magnificent palace designed for “royal societies” in 1775; fantastic galleries (Pissarro, Degas, Cezanne, Bendin, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Seurat, Renoir, Lautrec, Rubens, and a few modern works: Kandinsky, Leger, early Picasso)
• Temple Church – built by the Knights of Templar in the 12th century
• Dr. Johnson’s House – Home of Samuel Johnson during the period (1746-1755) when he wrote the first English Dictionary: over 40,000 definitions and 140,000 quotations.
• Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese – A pub established in 1667 (and it looks it); frequented by Dr. Johnson and Dickens among many others; I had two pints of Samuel Smith Cask Ale Bitters (a bargain at £1.72 each).

Now a few photos.
Cheers!

Dr. Johnson’s House

Middle Temple Lane

Near Picadilly Circus

St. James Park

Trafalgar Square

October 1, 2006
Noon (GMT)
Heathrow Airport

I’m drinking an expensive cup of coffee (£1.79) waiting for Katy to arrive on a 1pm flight and trying not to think about how little sleep I got on my flight last night. . . this morning. . . yesterday. . . whatever.

Katy had to go to London for work and I’m tagging along for the free hotel and concierge services. Her flight was booked on British Airways through her work. I found a considerably cheaper ticket on Virgin Atlantic—hence the different flights and arrival times. Virgin Atlantic is known (by me at least) for its state-of-the-art in-flight entertainment system: seat back screens, scores of on-demand movies, television programming and music–very cool stuff. On my flight, however, there was a “server problem” and after an hour of watching various booting screens the crew managed to get it running in a sort of safe mode with two channels playing the same thing on all the screens. Of course they had to pick only the most innocuous and inoffensive programming (i.e. crappy) so as not to offend.

It’s just as well, though. I had a lot of reading to do (Lonely Planet London, An Inebriated History of Britain, the Sunday Paper) and had the system worked as designed I would have been seduced by films and stayed up all night. Instead, I read and tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to sleep; I probably got two hours.

As I exited the plan I got a glimpse of the first class cabin (cheekily called “Upper Class” on Virgin). The seats up there. . . well, I wouldn’t really call them seats. . . more like private pods. . . have fold out desks and collapse into a completely flat bed. There’s also a full, standup bar. Of course all the Upper Class folks had deplaned by the time I made it the front of the aircraft from seat 43C, but I suspect they are rather more well rested than I.

I’m slightly sore (seats were a bit cramped), weirdly awake (excitement plus caffeine) and waiting for Katy. When she arrives we’ll take a Taxi to the hotel and see what happens next.

* * *

This is my first trip to London, by the way. A layover in Heathrow is the closest I’ve ever been. I’m excited to see the place. I’ve been boning up on my British History. In addition to the aforementioned books, Katy and I are 12 hours into a 15 hour documentary series called “The History of Britain”—good stuff, available on Netflix—and I’ve yet to crack the 800 page tome entitled London: The Biography recommended by Lonely Planet. Thus, I feel well armed to see the sites with at least some context. (The succession of royalty is the most confusing to me—so many Charleses and Richards and Edwards to keep up with.)

* * *

4:20pm
Langhom Hotel, London

Katy made it safe and sound and only 20 minutes late. A half-hour cab ride later (£60 – yikes… thank god for expense accounts) and we made it to the hotel. Very nice place. Swank. We have a “club room” which means we have access to the er. . . “club room.” This is a smallish room with tables, couches and comfy chairs. Along the wall is a bar and snack buffet available (gratis!) from 6am to 10pm. We just went down and had a coffee and little finger sandwiches. There’s also a desert tray, beer, wine, champagne, and a full bar. You just walk up and help yourself. I could get used to this.

I’m starting to feel exhausted, but we’re resisting the (strong) urge to nap and pushing on through. We’re going to explore the neighborhood now and then maybe find a pub.

Cheerio.
peebo

Errr… I maybe I need this…

(See last post)

Of course as soon as I decide to get back into the blogosphere I get swamped with work. Currently I’m about 171 pages into a specification document for an online “Global ACH application” and it’s only half done. (What can I say? I’m glad I get paid by the hour. It’s a living.)

“That’s no excuse,” you say? “What about the evenings?” you say? One word: Netflix. (Ok… another word: laziness.)

Fun and good things have been happening around the Peebo household. Maybe eventually I’ll get to tell you about them!

In the meantime, have a sandwich.

* * *

Another of the advantages of working from home is that I save a ton of money on lunch. (That and the fact that I can watch TV while I eat it.) Following is my current favorite. I eat this almost everyday.

Peebo’s Turkey Pastrami Sandwich

• 4 thin slices of turkey pastrami
• a little grated cheese (usually Colby Jack—but anything works)
• fresh rye bread (even not so fresh is ok because I toast it)
• 4 pepperoncini peppers
• mayo & mustard
• something green (lettuce or spinach)

Cut two fairly think slices of Rye. Add mayo and mustard to your liking.

Top one slice with Turkey Pastrami and grated cheese.

Pop both slices in a toaster oven for a couple of minutes (I like mine barely toasted).

While that’s toasting chop two of the peppers into little bits.

Top the toasted bread (and now slightly melted cheese) with chopped peppers and greens.

Add a dash of salt (optional) and cut in half.

Serve with the other two peppers, a pickle and/or celery sticks.

Voila! It’s cheap. It takes about three minutes to make. It’s yummy.

(Feel free to post your typical lunch to the comments.)